Bodhidharma, Mumon and Huangbo: A Buddha isn't one sided. The nature of his mind is basically empty, neither pure nor impure. He's free of practice and realization. He's free of cause and effect.

If you attain anything at all, it's conditional, it's karmic. It results in retribution. It turns the Wheel. And as long as you're subject to birth and death, you'll never attain enlightenment. To attain enlightenment you have to see your nature. Unless you see your nature, all this talk about cause and effect is nonsense. Buddhas don't practice nonsense.

A Buddha free of karma free of cause and effect. To say he attains anything at all is to slander a Buddha. What could he possibly attain? Even focusing on a mind, a power, an understanding, or a view is impossible for a Buddha. A Buddha isn't one sided. The nature of his mind is basically empty, neither pure nor impure. He's free of practice and realization. He's free of cause and effect.

Bodhidharma [483 - 540]: The Bloodstream Sermon, translated by Red Pine

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Buddhism makes mind its foundation and no-gate its gate.

Now, how do you pass through this no-gate?

It is said that things coming in through the gate can never be your own treasures. What is gained from external circumstances will perish in the end.

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Mumon Ekai [1183-1260]: excerpt from the preface to The Mumonkan

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You people seek to measure all within the void, foot by foot and inch by inch, I repeat to you that all phenomena are devoid of distinctions of form. Intrinsically they belong to that perfect tranquility which lies beyond the transitory sphere of form-producing activities, so all of them are coexistent with space and one with reality. Since no bodies possess real form, we speak of phenomena as void; and, since Mind is formless, we speak of the nature of all things as void. Both are formless and both are termed void.

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Huangbo Xiyun [died 850?]: On the Transmission of Mind, translated by John Blofeld

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Commentary: The matter has already been settled completely, therefore to take up a practice or to search is to at once miss it entirely. Here, Bodhidharma teaches: The nature of his mind is basically empty, neither pure nor impure. He's free of practice and realization. The Buddha mind lacks for not a single thing.

Then Mumon: It is said that things coming in through the gate can never be your own treasures. What is gained from external circumstances will perish in the end. Not a single thing can be attained that can cross though the no-gate, as anything on the other side was already there to begin with. What good can come from seeking it?

Finally, Huangbo: and, since Mind is formless, we speak of the nature of all things as void. Seek mind directly, and it is assured that not a single thing can be found. What is there to study, practice or accomplish? Void is already Void; the potential problem is in believing anything to be apart from it in the first place.

Submitted November 05, 2019 at 08:20PM by WanderingRoninXIII https://ift.tt/2NGuSEF